“Eagleheart,”a loose, inspired parody of “Walker Texas Ranger,” is the best original live-action series The Cartoon Network has produced, and comes darn close – rivaling even “The Venture Bros.” and “Lucy, Daughter of the Devil” -- to being the channel’s funniest original series of any stripe.

It could be the funniest thing Elliott’s been involved with since “Groundhog Day.”

The project comes from Conan O’Brien’s production company and was scripted by Michael Koman and Andrew Weinberg, veterans of “Saturday Night Live,” “The Colbert Report,” “Important Things With Demetri Martin” and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.”

Elliott, who worked for O'Brien's "Late Night" predecessor David Letterman for years, first as a writer-performer on "Late Night" and later as a supporting player on Worldwide Pants' "Everybody Loves Raymond." This marks Elliott's first lead role in a sitcom since the 1990-1992 Fox series "Get A Life."

In the opener, “Get Worse Soon,” his lawman character goes to hilariously extraordinary lengths to avenge the deaths of some former partners.

The second, “Creeps,” may or may not have inspired SNL’s latest digital short:

The project mutated a great deal on its way to the small screen. Here’s how the Hollywood Reporter described it in 2009:

… centers on a low-level television executive sent to Texas to produce the action series "Eagleheart." He finds himself stuck in a never-ending power struggle with his temperamental star/creator/exec producer (Elliott), a veteran action star past his prime who uses the show as a soapbox for his right-wing politics and conservative paranoia.

That show was shot in 2010 but it’s NOT the final product that arrived in 2011. There is no television executive, and Elliot does not play an actor. All we get to see is what was originally to be the show within the show.

I'm sorry to learn the backstage elements have been excised, but I must say what survives is wholly DVR worthy.

I didn’t get the opener in time to review it, but my eyebrow did go up when I learned the convicted rapist/murdered played by Bill Pullman would be set free just because it’s no longer physically possible to kill him via lethal injection. (Were he convicted in Texas, I could see state officials tossing his brain in a wood-chipper to see if that didn’t produce better results.) Also puzzling is how the murderer apparently becomes a renowned guru, even though it’s quickly established he’s far from the only guy who can’t be killed. No number of robots and spaceships make these developments remotely credible in my mind, but perhaps they play out on screen better than they sound?

The tepid reviews kept me from catching up with “Torchwood: Miracle Day.” I still hope to. Jane Espenson is involved. And other great writers, if more secretly.

… I couldn’t help wishing that “Torchwood: Miracle Day” spent a little more time on the miracle and less on Torchwood. … The parts of “Miracle Day” just dealing with those unexpected consequences are both fascinating and fun. … But as an actual narrative about Torchwood - which in its early days was something of a British answer to “The X-Files,” by way of “Doctor Who” (where Captain Jack first appeared) - “Miracle Day” is much more of a mixed bag. … It aims high, and wide, and near and far, and if it doesn't hit all of its many targets, it hits several. And that's probably enough to justify the time and expense everyone put into bringing "Torchwood" more firmly onto American soil.

… a letdown. … the show has been slowed down this season and stretched out to fill those 10 hours, which means we spend too much time thinking about the story as it develops into a not very interesting allegory involving health care, death lists and big pharma. …

… the trip from the U.K. to the U.S. has certainly taken a toll on the "Doctor Who" spinoff, "Torchwood." Having jumped, after three seasons, from the BBC to Starz, "Torchwood" is, in many ways, a shadow of its former self. … With any luck, subsequent episodes will find a sharper, cleaner stride. All the elements are there, it's just the alchemy that seems a bit off.

… mixed results in its early episodes. … The first hour pounds away at this premise to the point that some viewers might want to shout at the TV, "Yes, we get it, no one's dying!" The plot pace picks up in episodes two and three, the only other hours available for review at deadline. … It remains to be seen whether "the end of death" is a concept that can carry "Torchwood" through a full 10 hours of television.

… The performances and characterizations are all top-notch, and the action sequences, especially in the first episode, are crisply directed. Newbies won't notice it, but veteran Torchies may feel there's something missing in the new "Torchwood," especially as a follow to "Children of Earth." To some extent, maybe it's that American bureaucrats aren't as much fun to hang out to dry as their British counterparts. …

… Despite the sci-fi twist, “Miracle Day” is a humdrum “24” rip-off, with CIA moles out to frame the good agents and a global conspiracy led by the hoariest of opponents. … Because you and I remain decidedly mortal, I suggest you spend your precious moments elsewhere. …

… beautifully explores all the big and little consequences of the death of dying. … The story line is expertly structured, especially after the first hour’s exposition, as potential explanations emerge and the pieces begin to fit together. And the writers maintain an all-important sense of humor, not just with the one-liners among the team members but with shrewd social satire.

… That this latest sci-fi tale -- a 10-parter subtitled "Miracle Day" -- doesn't fully measure up to its predecessor does little to diminish its offbeat charm, with a small army of loyalists likely to shout "Hallelujah!" at the mere glimpse of its intrepid leads. …

… It’s difficult to guess at which audience may find Torchwood: Miracle Day compelling enough to stick it out. Die-hards might not like the American infiltration and newbies might sense there’s more wink-winking and missing back story than they can handle. But when Torchwood gets the balance right (the rising paranoia, cults, rewritten rules of human behavior), it becomes a rousing, enthralling half-breed. The vote here is to not only give Torchwood: Miracle Day a chance, but to ride out the bumpy parts and put some faith in Davies’ unique take on storytelling.

The 1986 ABC TV version of “Starman” replaced Jeff Bridges with “Airplane!” icon Robert Hays and took place 15 years after John Carpenter’s acclaimed 1984 movie. It was about the Starman and Scott, his teen son, and their cross-country search for the missing Jenny Hagen. Christopher Daniel Barnes, who went on to play Greg in the “Brady Bunch” movies, played Scott Starman.

The series has its own Lt. Gerard in the form of George Fox, a government UFO investigator determined to put Starman & Son in custody. When the Starmen finally caught up with Jenny at the end of the series’ first and only season, she was played by “Buck Rogers” vet Erin Gray.

“Bob” , launched in 1992, was Bob Newhart’s 33-episode third CBS series, following the much longer-lived “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart.”

I loved the show. It was written and produced by Bill Steinkellner, Cheri Steinkellner and Phoef Sutton, three of the main writer-producers behind “Cheers.”

The first and second seasons felt almost like two different series.

In the first season, Newhart’s character Bob McKay was a greeting-card artist recruited by a massive conglomerate to revive his 1950s superhero “Mad Dog” as bloodthirsty vigilante. Cynthia Stevenson played McKay’s single daughter Trisha and Lisa Kudrow recurred as Trisha’s best friend Kathy Fleisher. Kathy’s dad was played by “Newhart” regular Tom Poston.

Stevenson and Kudrow stuck with the show during season two but McKay got a new job and an all-new set of co-workers. The “Mad Dog” comic was cancelled at the end of season one and season two saw McKay recruited as president of Schmitt Greetings, a greeting card company. Betty White joined the cast as McKay’s boss and “Justified’s” Jere Burns played the White character’s resentful sales-manager son, who wanted McKay’s job.

Reviews were great and ratings were good until CBS moved the show from Mondays to Fridays for its second season.

"ratings were good until CBS moved the show
from Mondays to Fridays for its second season."
Not true. Ratings were middling from the very first episode and it was listed as "on the bubble" throughout the season.
The show was actually cancelled at the end of that first year, but the producers ended up working out a deal where they would completely overhaul the show for a second shot.
The show never moved to Friday nights, that's where it started to begin with. Believe the lead-in was the Golden Girls spin-off.

Miracle Day is great in its concept, and I don't think it flinches from the greater ramifications of no one dying (even paying lip service to the millions of fetuses that would have miscarried would now carry to term despite grotesque abnormalities). It drags a bit too much, and I'm not sure how well it works for those fresh to the series, but I still think it is one of the smart SF entries I've seen on TV recently.
As for Pullman, he doesn't become a guru overnight. He is, as expected, a pariah at first, but events manage to drag him into the spotlight.

I didn't even think it was as much fun as Torchwood's second season and of course, nowhere near "Children of Earth". But it was just a little too cheesy for me (and I know how corny the first two seasons were - especially the first.)
I don't get all the love for Jane Espenson, I know she's charming at conventions and on Twitter, but besides Buffy and her episode of Game of Thrones, I don't get excited when I see her name like I did for LOST eps by Horowitz and Kitsis, anything by Whedon, Darin Morgan, or even Davies himself. Maybe she'll grow on me, but then again, I liked Firefly, but I never was a Browncoat.
Anyway, Miracle Day is okay, but temper your expectations. You get some good stuff between Jack and Gwen. Phifer and Pullman give the old college try, but the writing fails them the most.
At least John Delancie comes off pretty well and becomes RTD's avatar defender of cigarette smoking and Eve Myles is still pretty hot. Alexa Havens however, is as disposable as you get.

I've seen every episode of Dr Who and Torchwood up until the series.
But I couldn't make it through this one. It was one of the shows I forced myself to watch because I stuck through the first few episodes, like Flashfoward.
In the end I watched 9 episodes but never got round to watching the finale. I still have no idea how it ended and why nobody died. I realised I just didn't care.

How do you think Eagleheart compares?
I do like Eagleheart, but for some reason I don't like it quite as much as Children's Hospital.
I think CH has the most "actual laughs per minute" of any show I've seen in awhile.

I loved Torchwood. I loved Children of Earth, especially when you found out why 456 was there (ick *shiver*) but watching Miracle Day (and I watched the whole thing) was like watching someone you love suffering from dementia or alzheimers or some brain-debilitating stroke. It's heartbreaking. You see a glimmer of Torchwood as it was, then its handed over to people who didn't likely watch the show at all or, like me through high school, wrote it the night before and just handed it in. My advice is to find a YouTube summary or get someone to summarize what happened. Then if you're still tempted to watch, get that same someone to tell you all the horribly wrong things in the series too. The closest equivalent to the failure of Miracle Day I can think of is either the movie Catwoman or the final season of Northern Exposure after Morrow left for good.

It is absolutely NOT better than Children's Hospital. It started out great but quickly lost steam. And I wouldn't expect a box-set of Breaking Bad before Christmas, I read a quote from Anna Gunn that said not only are they splitting the season up but they're splitting up the shooting as well, shooting the first half now and the second half next year... Don't know if it's 100% true, but if so it's more like two mini seasons than one.

Was indeed great, largely in part to Damian Lewis. Plus the chick in it is smoking hot. Season 2 is even better, and features Donald Loungue to boot. Wish that was priced cheap too.
The nice thing is that even though it got cancelled, it managed to wrap up the main storyline nicely.

re: life and kings (and moonlight, studio 60, and many more!) : when a show is broadcast in HD, what the **** is the rational behind giving it a DVD release? Is this just to force us to pirate the 720p broadcast versions so the studio heads can then claim that pirating costs them X amount more?
*SIGH*

Gotta pick up the TALES OF THE GOLD MONKEY set given the price drop. For no other reason than to relive my youth, when I watched the show and still have a vague recollection about some of the episodes lodged in my skull.
There goes 20 bucks flying out of my wallet!
But just kidding about the "Damn Herc" part. I actually appreciate that he stays on top of this stuff and is always posting these latest sales, otherwise I'd be missing out on things all the time.
So THANKS, Herc, for keeping these home video sales columns alive! One of the better continuing columns here at AICN for sure!